I finally took the courage to take my bike riding to the next level. The Road Race.Here's how the day panned out.5:45 am - Get up, eat vanilla slice for breakfast. Drive 3 hours to Gunning.9:00 am - Arrive at small Australian Country town.Buy coffee and ANZAC biscuit at local cafe. Ask for directions to show ground.10:00 am - Get to hall, sign in. Forget my license, go back to car to get license. Realise the lady's talking about my racing license which I haven't received yet. Buy a race tag holder for the bike ($2.50), pin number to back and side. Head off to start.10:15 am - Look for other women and hang around in their vicinity.10:20 am - Get briefed about the "neutral zone" - the area where we're not racing, lead by our lead car to the "safe zone". More details here - http://www.bathurstcyclingclub.com.au/index.php/site/road

Racing Etiquette - know hows

Bring your racing licence

Leave your spares with the spares car

Try to stay with the group (peloton) for as long as possible. ride at the back if you have to

Number needs to be on the side and back of your jersey

Where to get Race Info (for NSW races)

Information about the race itself isn't easy to find.

After registering and receiving the race registration email, there are no more emails with details

The starting list is released the Monday before the race on the NSW cycling website - refer to the registration email

Look for previous race's results to see the times and get an idea of the times people are racing at.

My tips

Don't panic. The worst that could happen is you come last (that's what happened).

Don't panic or you could start hyper ventilating and not being able to breathe while riding (that's what happened, I was stressing so much I couldn't breathe).

Have an emergency sugar hit (I had my first sports gel, not as bad as I was expecting)